The Infinite Desert
by TheSunglassesGamer
Summary: Starco, 5 chapters, criticize as you wish, yada yada yada.
1. Chapter one

SVTFOE first draft

8/14/15

Star groaned as she tried to readjust herself in her bed. She knew that she had to get up soon, but she had never been a morning girl. She rolled over on to her stomach, and her face rested upon a hard, grainy surface. It was just as uncomfortable as the other position had been. She sighed, and a bit of sand got in her gaping mouth.

She opened her eyes in surprise, and saw nothing but sand. She quickly got up on her knees and spit the disgusting sand out of her mouth. It tasted so dry she had to cough afterwards. And as she looked around, her heart started to pace. She wasn't in her bedroom, sleeping in her soft covers. She was in a desert, with sand going as far as her eyes could see.

She started to look around, trying to figure out where she was and what was going on. The sky was pitch black, yet Star could see perfectly. Bright, white sand slightly shaded yellow went on for miles in slow, curving hills. A slight breeze cut through the air, causing some of the sand to mix around.

And a few feet to her right lay a young Hispanic teenager in a red hoodie and blue skinny jeans.

"Marco!" Star yelled, as she ran over to his side and began shaking him back and forth. "Get up!"

Marco grunted in displeasure and confusion. "Not now, Star," he mumbled, trying to get out of her grasp. "It's the weekend, just give me five more minutes."

She shook him even harder. "You need to get up now!" The fear from their situation was starting to seep into her voice.

He grunted again and squinted at her. The dark sky and Star's troubled face immediately told Marco that something was wrong. He rose, and as he took in the world around him, he started to panic. "Star," he asked quietly. "Where the heck are we?"

"I don't know," she responded, her voice slightly trembling. "I've been to so many dimensions, and been lectured on hundreds more. But I've never heard of any place with an enormous desert and no sky. And I don't remember how we got here."

Marco almost asked how she couldn't remember, until he started to try himself. The last thing he remembered was walking home with Star from school, talking about the school project they had to complete. Everything after that was oddly blurry.

His breathing started to increase in speed, until he gasped in remembrance. "Star!" he exhaled, a short laugh of relief leaving him as he spoke. "We've got nothing to worry about. Just use your dimensional scissors to get us out of here."

Star's face beamed with hope. "Of course! How had I forgotten about them?" After a short search of her pockets, the scissors were retrieved. Yet when she attempted to use them, the scissors didn't work. They stayed stuck together, no matter how hard she tried to open them. She looked down at them in frustration and more confusion.

"What the heck!?" She nearly shouted in frustration. "They've never stayed shut like this before. At St. Olga's, they simply didn't make a gateway." She looked to Marco for answers, but he had none. His face was starting to whiten, and his features were similar to those who had just witnessed their pet suddenly die.

"It's O.K., Star," he stuttered, more to himself than the girl beside him. "We'll find another way out. Does your wand still work?"

Star quickly reached for her wand and got it out. She pressed down on the button hard, screaming, "Narwhal Blast!" and pointed her wand into the sky. Nothing happened. "Jellybean Hallucination!" Nothing happened. Star's face became almost as horrified as Marco's was at the moment. "Dragon Escalation!" she said significantly softer than the first outburst. Again, the area was still but for the gentle breeze through the air. Star looked down at her wand in shock. "Why isn't it working?" she exclaimed.

"That's because," an unfamiliar voice behind them stated clearly, "you are in the Infinite Desert."

The two teenagers turned around to see a young man sitting on a rock, strumming an acoustic guitar. He had tannish skin, dandelion-yellow hair, and was built like a surfer. He also happened to dress like a surfer: Khaki shorts, a tight t-shirt showing modest abs and pecks, and a pair of simple leather flip-flops. He wore a nice pair of sunglasses and had an incredibly freckled face. He was also surrounded by a small oasis. A pool of crystal clear water the size of a public swimming pool was behind the man, as well as several date trees and other desert plants. After a moment of silence from the two friends, the man's mouth slightly frowned.

"Well?" he asked politely. His voice was relaxed and smooth, as though he were a retired college professor pondering philosophy with an old student. "Aren't you going to introduce yourselves?"

"Umm," Star stuttered, her mind still trying to catch up with the scene.

"Oh, my bad," the man said, frowning at himself. "How rude of me. My name is Dr. Benadard Gunsery, the keeper of the oasis. How may I be of assistance?"

Star's curiosity snapped her out of her brain fart. "Dr. Benadard Gunsery?" she asked, greatly exaggerating the doctor in his name. "Doctor of what?"

He sighed and replied, "Does it matter? Besides, I've told you my name. It's customary for you to tell me yours."

Marco, who had also been stunned by the sudden presence of the odd man, blinked his eyes a bit. "Marco Diaz," he said a moment afterwards. "And my friend is Star Butterfly." He looked around uncertainly at the scene. "Uhh," he started, getting his thoughts together. "Where did you… come from?"

The man chuckled to himself and smirked at the two kids in front of him. "I've been here the whole time, children. The better question is, where did you two come from?"

Star started to speak, but then she stopped. Her face became furrowed in concentration. Why couldn't she remember where they had been? Was it some sort of amnesia spell?

Marco ended up answering for both of them. "We can't remember," he explained, concern on his face. "We just woke up here in this wasteland with no idea of where we are or how long we've been here."

Dr. Gunsery's eyebrows rose a little, and he looked at the pair with more interest. "Really?" he inquired. "You can't simply get to where you are by coincidence."

"What do you mean?" Marco inquired back, his eyebrows narrowing in confusion.

"This is no ordinary desert," the man said, changing the key of whatever song he was playing. "This is the Infinite Desert, the Never ending Wastelands, the Sands of No End." The man looked hard at the two of them as he spoke. "It is a realm that few know about, and even fewer escape should they be sent to it. Time does not exist here, and no magical items work here either." He looked directly at Star. "That is why your wand and scissors are useless here."

Star looked up at the man. She had been chewing on her wand and staring at the ground, trying her hardest to remember what had gotten them there. "Heh?" She said, mouth still on the priceless family heirloom.

"As I just said," Dr. Gunsery continued, giving Star a disapproving look. "This realm cancels out magic and magical artifacts. There is no way into this dimension, save for an incredibly powerful potion that takes 3 months to prepare. The potion requires exotic ingredients and a mastery of potion-making. Whomever sent you here must have wanted you gone with ever bone in their body."

Star thought about what the so-called doctor had said. They obviously hadn't accidentally gone to the place, that was seemingly impossible. That meant that one of their sworn enemies had attacked them. She thought about the possible options. Tom had the resources, but he probably would have only tried to send Marco. There was no way he might have used it in a scenario that might accidentally get rid of his crush. Miss Heinous of St. Olgas Reform School for Wayward Princesses hadn't sent much more than a few guards after them. Ludo didn't have half the brains necessary to carry out such a plan.

'Who could have done it, then?' she thought to herself furiously. There weren't any other major villains she could think of that could pull off such a nefarious action.

Marco, who had apparently had been using the same train of thought, suddenly gasped. "Star," he exclaimed. "Ludo hired a new henchman, remember? He's been bragging about him for the last three months."

Star thought about what Marco said, and tried thinking of any new henchmen that had been attacking them lately. There was spike ball, man arm, the lizard guy…

And that's when she remembered the stranger in the shadows. He had the face of an alligator and the body of a human. His immaculate suit made him seem more like a rich business owner than a henchmen for a filthy little bird such as Ludo. And when his eyes had met Star's, they were filled with more hatred than she had ever known was possible to have.

It was then, when she was remembering the face of Toffee, that the most recent battle Star and Marco had been in came rushing back to her.


	2. Chapter 2

The Infinite Desert Chap. 2

8/18/15

It was the middle of the afternoon as the two besties walked home from school. Their 4th period teacher had assigned the students a project over the weekend, so Marco and Star were discussing ideas for their group. The assignment was to write a five-page essay on a historical figure and their accomplishments.

"We could try George Washington," Marco suggested. "He commanded the American armies to victory in the Revolutionary war, and then became the first president of the United States."

"I don't know," Star said, looking at the sky for funny looking clouds. "From what you've told me, he's kind of too famous. There will be at least a few groups already using him. What about-"her sentence was cut off by the distinct sound of a magical portal opening up behind them. They turned on their heels to find Ludo and his men coming from the dimension of Mewni to Earth.

"Dog gone it, Ludo," Star complained, as she set her backpack off to the side and got out her wand. "Do you mind? We just got back from a long day of school, and we have a lot of boooooring homework to do."

Ludo looked back at her with a sly grin. "Oh dear, homework," he sarcastically stated, rolling his eyes. "Well, if this homework of yours is so important, then we might as well just leave and come back lat- ATTACK!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

The minions that had surrounded Ludo went after Star and her precious wand. Marco and Star sighed in unison, and got into their battle stances. Another day of beating up Ludo and his creeps, thought Star. At least it isn't a large threat, Marco's thoughts told him. The two forces were about to collide when…

"Stop!" yelled a deep and powerful voice. Everyone froze where they were and looked at the source of the noise. A middle-aged business man, or shark-like man, stepped out of the portal Ludo had created. His well-groomed black hair and perfect black suit and tie gave him an air of superiority. He looked down at Ludo and frowned apologetically.

"Sorry for intervening in what would have been a thrilling fight, master Ludo, but I have a different idea today. Do you mind?" he asked politely and seemingly genuine enough, yet Star and Marco both detected a bit of sarcasm in his voice. It hadn't taken them long to realize that Toffee looked down on Ludo, both figuratively and literally. Ludo looked up in surprise. Apparently, he hadn't expected his favorite employee to come waltzing into battle today.

"Umm," he replied, starting to get his brain back in to full gear. "Ah, yes, of course, Toffee." He gathered more confidence with each passing word. "Go ahead with your plan."

Toffee looked at Star and Marco from where he was, approximately ten feet away. While his face usually did a good job of hiding any emotions he had, the two friends could see both incredible disgust and insane happiness the slight curve of his mouth. They tensed up a second time, waiting for whatever he had planned. From inside his suit, he procured a small vile no larger than a bottle of lip balm. Inside of the vile, there was a gold, glittering substance similar to honey. Ludo looked at the vile disappointedly.

"This is your plan?" he asked, not even trying to keep the doubt from his voice. "I mean, you're my most successful minion yet, but this…" He gestured at the vile as if it were a five-year-olds drawing. "It just doesn't seem like your style."

"Oh contraire, my lord." He said while still looking at the princess and her literal soulmate. The slight grin he had been wearing before grew into a devilish smirk. "This is all we need. All we ever really needed, in fact. I never actually thought that we might have to resort to it, but," He shrugged his shoulders and chuckled softly to himself. "I kept working on it, just in case."

Star started to get impatient with the overwhelming amount of build-up. "Can you just attack us already?" She said before Toffee could gloat anymore. "We really do have things to do later."

Toffee glared at her for half a second before his evil grin returned to his features. "No, you really don't," he relished, throwing the bottle at their feet. The small bottle broke, and immediately afterwards a whirlpool of sand opened up beneath their feet. Star and Marco got pulled into the whirlpool and were soon drowning in the sand. Star tried using her wand, but she was too late. Ludo had realized what was happening to late as well, and by the time he had given his troops the order to retrieve the wand, it was already gone.

Star shuddered at the memory she had just relived. Ludo was almost comical in most of his attempts, but Toffee had always been more than a little intimidating. He, at least, had a bit of brain power behind his plans and could be a pretty serious threat to them.

And his grin. He had never acted so outwardly malevolent. It had almost always been behind a professional veil. To have him not be in control of his emotions was… she shivered again.

Marco, who had just had the exact same flashback with Star, muttered to himself, "Curses! Why didn't we attack Toffee earlier? That speech of his was the perfect moment to attack him, and we had just stood there." He looked down at his clenched fists, and he unclenched them. "Sigh," he released aloud. There was no point in keeping his mind in the past, and he knew it. When he looked up, the Doctor was staring at them intently.

A thought occurred to Marco. "Wait a minute." He said, looking suspiciously at the Doctor across from them. "How do you know about all of this?"

The doctor smiled gently and replied, "I am the Keeper of the Oasis. I was given this information as soon as I took up the position."

Star looked up. "Does that mean you know how to get out of here?" She asked in barely two seconds. Her face had begun to light up with hope of an answer.

The doctors smile grew as he replied, "Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I do know where the exit is." He then frowned and looked down at his guitar. "Unfortunately, it isn't easy to get to. The journey is long and arduous, mostly due to the lack of anything along the pathway. And despite there being no time in this realm, you will still grow tired and hungry here." He looked at the two high schoolers with a troubled expression. "Are you sure you're up for the task?"

Marco and Star looked back at the man with confidence. Probably too much confidence, actually. "Of course," they said in unison. They looked at each other and blushed a little. This had happened a few other times, just enough so that it couldn't be marked off as coincidence. They both just assumed that they had gotten to know each other so well that things like this were to be expected.

The Doctor blinked in surprise at them. "Oh," he softly murmured. "Well that should make this interesting." He coughed loudly before addressing them. "Anyways, the only way out of the Infinite Desert is through the pillar of pure blue energy. That pillar is off-"he pointed to his left, "that way." He reached behind himself and bore back two backpacks, each the size of the two teens and crammed full of stuff. "These are some basic necessities you'll need," he explained. "There's food, sleeping bags, and a compass in each. The compass will always point to the pillar, no matter how far away or close you are to it."

They both took the bags and thanked him for his generosity. Marco took out his compass, and low and behold, it pointed to his right. They said their good-byes, and the besties departed leaving the man alone to his oasis.

"Funny," He murmured to himself when they were far out of ear's reach. "I always seem to get two people with that soul-binding spell. Weird. Ah well, best prepare for the next group." Then he began playing his guitar again, and the sands whispered softly all around.


	3. Chapter 3

The Infinite Desert chap. 3

Marco looked up at the jet black sky. He was having trouble figuring out if it was a solid wall or if it just an empty void. The two had been walking for some time now, or, Marco speculated, no time at all but a good distance from the oasis. If what the Doctor had said was true, this place was outside of time and supposedly the other dimensions. It was then that he realized that they hadn't asked the man much before departing. They hadn't learned why he was there, how he had gotten there, what the oasis was, etc.

"Hey Star," he asked. She had been walking slightly ahead of him during the majority of their adventure so far. Despite the sandy environment, she had been skipping at least half of the journey. She turned his way without stopping.

"Hmmm?" She casually hummed. In spite of the dreary area and their horrible circumstances, she had been in a relaxed mood for the first three-ish hours of the journey. The two had been talking about all sorts of things, from sports, to T.V., to how Marco was going to get with Jackie, and vice versa for Oscar. It wasn't until a few moments ago that Marco had shut up. She had figured that he was done for the moment. Thus, when she turned around, the expression she wore was much less troubled than his was.

"Umm," he began. "Well, how do we know that we can trust that Doctor? He never explained who he was in depth, or why he was here. He just sort of told us where we were and how to get out."

Star's smile changed to a frown and she looked oddly at him. "What do you mean, Marco?"

He gathered his confidence before speaking again. "Well, what if he was a hired by Ludo or Toffee? He was nearby us when we woke up, and could have easily disrupted your wand and dimensional scissors somehow whilst we slept. How do we know that this isn't just a setup for us to die in this wasteland?

Stars look darkened a little more as she thought about what he had said. It was true that the man, if he was a man at all, had said very little to them. And they had just woken up unconscious with him nearby. Was it possible that the supposed Doctor had actually disrupted her wand and dimensional scissors somehow to aid Ludo and Toffee? She thought about the conversation a little more. The doctor hadn't acted devious or tried to attack them in anyway. He had acted… genuine.

"Hmmm," she muttered uncertainly. "I… don't think that he was evil. He was kind, and nice, and helped us. If he was a minion of Ludo's or Toffee's, why would he give us the packs of food and water? He could have easily told us they were off limits, but he gave them to us."

Marco pondered on that for a second. "Maybe it was a trick, to try to catch us off guard."

Star gave him a dubious look. "Now that's just paranoid, Safe Kid Diaz." She cocked her head and gave him a playful smile.

He chuckled to himself and calmed down a bit. Strange, he thought to himself. I don't think anyone's called me safe kid in a few months. I guess taking on monsters and hanging out with Star actually did get rid of that title. He smiled warmly. They may have been in a hellish dimension, but they were doing fine. As long as he had Star, everything would be O.K.

The two continued on for a while. Star, who loved to talk about Jackie and how Marco was going to get with her, decided to bring up the subject again.

"So," she teased. "Back to Jackie."

Marco groaned in irritation. His inability to get with Jackie Lynn Thomas depressed him every time she was brought up. He didn't know what he was doing wrong. What was he missing?

"I know what you're missing, Marco." She sang gleefully, somehow reading his mind. Or perhaps he was just that predictable. "You never talk to her."

Marco groaned a second time. This was the same conversation they had had for the past forever. She acted like talking to your crush was just something you do, like going out to eat or chatting with friends. Of course he had tried to talk to her, but whenever he was even close to her his mouth stopped working. As a matter of fact, so did his stomach, his mind, and most of his body.

"It's not that simple, Star," he complained. "Jackie is just so… I don't know, I just can't." He reddened as he tried to explain why it was impossible for him to talk with Jackie. It was so obvious for him that it made the explanation part incredibly difficult.

"Marco," Star chastised, giving him her reproving look. Unfortunately for her, he found the look insanely adorable. "How are you going to get noticed by Jackie if you don't talk to her? You'll just end up being part of the background to her. If you want her to know you, and thus like you, you need to talk to her."

Marco's frustration grew. "If it's so easy, then why don't you talk to Oscar more? You have his number, you know where he lives, why don't you talk to him more?"

It was Star's turn to become frustrated. "What are you talking about? I talk to Oscar all the time."

Marco gave her an unimpressed look. "'All the time', huh? The last time I remember you talking to him was 2 months ago, and the only words you said were 'hi, Oscar' and 'bye, Oscar'."

Star looked a little hurt after that comment. Marco realized it might have been a touch too harsh, as her relationship with Oscar's really was just as bad as his with Jackie. "Star, the point I'm trying to make is that I can't talk to Jackie is because I can't. I've tried, and tried, and tried. She's just… unapproachable for me." He felt something wet on his cheek, and realized that a tear was falling from his eye. He turned his face away from Star, but she still saw it fall from his face.

Star looked somberly at him. "I suppose it's the same for me." Her voice was just barely audible for the two of them. "But, how are we ever going to get their attention otherwise? How will we learn anything about them, get to know who they are?" A terrible realization came over them as she said the words. They both stopped and Star looked at the ground in deep thought.

How would either of them know if they were actually in love with their supposed crushes? Was it purely based on looks alone? Could they have been so shallow this entire time?

Marco thought about Jackie. He thought about the first day that he had seen Jackie. She had seemed beautiful, even when they were toddlers. He thought about what else had attracted him to her. Perhaps it was her skill in skateboarding, a sport that he had always seen as extreme and dangerous. He had always wanted to have a little more action in his life. Maybe she had just been a symbol of that dream, an idea projected upon Jackie as what he wanted. Maybe…

Maybe she had never really liked Oscar. She had to rack her brains to remember why she had first fallen for him. He had been playing his keytar in the parking lot, and the noise had practically summoned her over. He was a bad boy, and she had a thing for bad boys. Ever since Pony Head had taken her to concert, she had enjoyed being a renegade, disobeying her parents and breaking minor laws. She had been energetic and mischievous before that concert, of course, but it had turned more rebellious afterwards. Especially when she was with Pony Head. Was it possible that she was missing Pony Head more than she thought, and that Oscar's lifestyle was what attracted her to him? Maybe…

They both stood there in silence, their minds racing to find an answer. The light breeze made them shiver, and Marco snapped out of his mind. "We, uh," he stammered, fervently trying to relearn Basic English. "We should keep going. The way out is this way."

Star looked up and nodded hastily. The two walked along the dunes in silence, both of them scared to talk. Neither wanted to accidentally bring up the subject again, for fear of facing the truth: their crushes were only that, and nothing more.

They continued on in said silence for several small hills. Finally, Star broke the ice and asked about the project they needed to finish. The mood gradually shifted to how it had been before the subject of Jackie and Oscar had come up. They shared some jokes and laughs, debated which Disney princesses were the best, and shared embarrassing stories of when they were in grade school. The dunes went on, seemingly endless. They both started to realize that the Infinite Desert hadn't been called that simply because it sounded cool. The two became tired and hungry, and both decided to rest in a dune bed for the night. They both knew there was no night or day, but they called it night out of habit. They got out their sleeping bags, set them up, and had a short dinner. The dates were sweet, and the water was pure. They maintained their conversations for a short while, but fatigue overwhelmed them.

Before she could stay awake no more, Star asked Marco, "Do you think you still like Jackie?" Her voice was as quiet as it had been earlier. Marco stared out into the black sky, thinking it over.

"No," he said, almost melancholy. "I don't think I ever truly loved her." The words felt bitter in his mouth, but the truth was the truth. He had obsessed over Jackie Lynn Thomas for most of his life, only to now realize his mistake.

"Same," Star said under her breath. "It's hard to imagine that we were wrong about our own feelings."

Marco's mouth went dry, and he swallowed. "Yeah." Water started to form at his eyes.

"Well," Star said with more conviction. "At least I still have the best bestie ever. Right?"

Marco's eyes widened, and then he smiled. "Of course you do, Star." The water in his eyes started to flow out down his face. "We both do."

And thus, they fell asleep smiling.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Marco rolled around in his sleeping bag. His mind was slowly starting to wake up, but the rest of him decided that the mind must have been insane. Sleep was nice, it was cozy, and warm, and peaceful. You'd have to be an idiot to get out of such euphoria. Then his stomach realized that it was empty, and joined the brains side of the argument. It growled at Marco, acting as if it had been on the team for waking up the entire time. His mouth moaned in protest, but the stomach was louder. He sighed in defeat, and opened his crusted eyes. The pitch black sky in front of him was puzzling for only half a second. Then the memory of the previous days, err, indiscriminate amount of times, events came rolling back to him. He tried to get up, but the sleeping bag tripped him up. He fell face first with most of his body still in the sleeping bag over on to his left side. And onto Star Butterfly's face.

He landed with a slight oomph onto her. They both had a short grunt of pain, and then Star woke up. They but two inches from each other's faces, close enough to see the highlights in each other's eyes. There was a moment of silence, and then they both screamed.

"Dha, sorry!" Marco squeaked, his face blushing a deep crimson red. "I woke up without remembering where we were, and I freaked out a bit, and fell over, and-"he stopped himself short of the rushed explanation. The shock of the event was evaporating swiftly, and a question popped into his head. His left eyebrow rose as he looked back at Star. "Why were you sleeping right next to me?"

Stars face went as red as Marco's. "I didn't mean to!" She exclaimed defensively. "I couldn't get my head comfortable, and I kept rolling around half asleep until I ran into a comfy pillow." Her face got even redder. "I mean, comfier than the sand." Her mouth grew small and she stared at him in apprehension.

Marco didn't know how to respond to that. He decided that the best action was to ignore the comment and never bring it up again. "Uh, right," he said, about an eternity later. "We should eat and get moving."

They shared a short breakfast and continued on their quest. They traveled for a long time, having to take at least a few other naps similar to the one they'd just had. They entertained themselves by talking, playing word games, and messing with what little equipment they had. However, it hadn't been a great deal of walking before the chit-chat had started to lose its flavor. By the third night-time stop, they had almost stopped talking completely. Boredom soon overtook the two like the rising of the tides.

Star handled it the worse. As the hike went on, her practically glowing, smiling face melted into a drooping, dull pout. Her back slowly fell forward, letting her arms dangle loose at her sides. Every step was given all of her body weight, as if she was constantly falling forward. In short, Star was in her own personal hell.

Marco had a higher threshold for boredom. He had long since learned the art of patience whilst waiting for Jackie to pass by him in their morning routine. The lack of interesting scenery or activity only really started to irritate him towards the third day (they had shortly split the days by every time they stopped to sleep after the first night). The monotony of the adventure wasn't his biggest concern. It was how exhausted he was starting to feel. Every morning they woke up, despite both of them sleeping relatively well, they noticed that continuing onward became harder. Their legs especially had started to ache with pain from the sudden increase in work they were expected to do. Beads of sweat fell from their faces, yet the desert itself was relatively cool. Marco had to work more each day to get over each dune. He wasn't sure how long he could continue going.

And then Star collapsed. They were at the top of a dune on their fourth day when she fell. Marco's exhausted brain started to accelerate as he saw her drop. He ran over to her despite all of his muscles yelling at him to lie down. When he got to her, he dropped on his knees stiffly and checked her face. "Star!" he yelled, horror on his face. Her face was pale and sweaty, and her eyes were a little off center. She looked up at him and frowned.

"Marco," she mumbled in a dead-pan voice, giving slight hints of fatigue. Marco's eyes lit up as she spoke, and he sighed with relief.

"You're alright," he sputtered, a tear forming in his eyes. "I thought-" he stopped himself from remembering his worst fear. He got out his water and made her take small sips from it. "Don't scare me like that again."

Star grimaced up at him. "Marco, go on without me." She said it in the same manner as before. The little color that Marco's face still had vanished.

"No, Star," he said worriedly. "We need to continue onward. We have to get back home."

Star shook her head and looked at him somberly. "I can't go on. I'm too bored."

Marco's temper started to rise. "Bored?!" He shouted. "We're trying to save our lives, Star. This isn't some mediocre game or school event."

Star looked back at him with hurt disappointment. "You don't understand, Marco. You should, but you don't. This desert is driving me crazy. I can't stand to be doing nothing but walking for days on end. It's not how I work." She closed her eyes started to fall asleep. "You have to go on by yourself."

Marco started to realize why she had fallen. It wasn't a physical problem, it was mental. She needed excitement, and this was starving her of it. He doubted that anymore pestering to get up would motivate her out of her minor depression. So he came up with a different plan.

"I'll carry you," he said, determination lining his voice. "You can rest in my arms and wait for us to get back."

Star looked up at him, panic in her eyes. "No!" she said sharply. "Don't! I'm not worth it."

"Bullcrap," he replied strongly. "You're worth more to me than almost anything. And besides, besties don't leave other besties behind."

She stared to tear up. "I… alright," she said with abnegation. Marco smiled and lifted her up. She wasn't too heavy for him to handle, but she wasn't nothing, either. He continued on walking from there, making sure that Star wasn't getting into any worse shape. They traveled in silence together for a long time. The dunes seemed to get bigger as they went on, or perhaps it was just Marco's imagination. The never ending hills and sand made his mind wander. Star was looking out on to the hills as well, trying to pick her words carefully. It took a long time, but Star finally spoke up.

"Marco?" She asked cautiously. Marco suddenly realized that she was there again and snapped out of glazed expression.

"Wha?" he mumbled, still staring out in front of them.

Star hesitated before she continued talking. "Marco." Her voice was soft and timid, and she couldn't keep the tears from entering her eyes. "What if we can't get home?"

Marco's features barely changed as he responded, "There is no 'what if', Star. We have to get home."

"But-"

"We can't, Star." He said it a little too casually. "You're the next heir to the royal throne. We can't have the princess of Mewni not coming home."

"But-"

"No, Star," he said with considerably more brass. "There are people waiting for us at home. Think about your mom, your dad, Pony Head, Alphonso and Ferguson, my mom and dad, Os-"he stopped himself before saying his full name, but it was too late. Star looked off to the side, her face full of anguish. Marco sighed and looked down at her. "I'm sorry, Star. I…" His voice cut off and he looked down towards his side again.

She looked up at him bleakly. She took in a deep breath and got ready to ask the overlying question. "Marco, what if we don't make it home? What if we die?"

There it was. The question he had been trying to avoid since he awoke that morning. They both had been avoiding it like the plague since they had gotten there, but it had to be answered eventually. Marco continued walking without answering her for a long time. Finally, he responded, "Then we die trying to get home. And when we fail, we'll be by each other's sides. Best buddies, till the end."

Star's eyes began to well up, and she sniffled. After a moment, she smiled. "Yeah," she said quietly. "Best buddies till the end." And then she fell into sweet, sweet sleep.

She awoke in a completely white room with no obvious boundaries. It was like being in three dimensional piece of paper with no edges. No matter which way she looked, it was simply pure white. When she looked down at herself, she was wearing her blue royal dress, exactly as she had been wearing it on Mewnipendence day. She tried looking for an exit to the white expanse, but there was no visible way out.

"This isn't a place you simply walk out of, my dear," said a smooth, rich voice from behind her. Star turned around to see the man from the Oasis sitting on a rock, playing his guitar.

"Dr. Gunsery?" she asked, clearly puzzled. "What are you doing here?"

The doctor smiled at her and said, "I've been here the whole time, Star. The better question is, why are you here?"

Great. Riddles. Star did not like riddles. She looked at the doctor annoyed and responded, "I have no idea, Dr. The last thing I remember was talking to Marco about what happens if we fail, and then I fell asleep."

"Ah," Dr. Gunsery mused. "And what does that tell you?"

"That I'm going insane? That you're stalking me like a vulture to an injured rabbit?"

The doctor huffed out a little air before saying, "Of course not. It means that you need answers. And as the Keeper of the Oasis, it is my duty to give you those answers to the best of my ability."

Star looked at him skeptically. "Why haven't you appeared to me beforehand? Why now?"

"Because, my dear," he replied, giving her a look that made her feel a little stupid. "You haven't needed the answers till now."

Star pouted and gave him a deadly look. "Alright, Mr. Doctor Person. Why are Marco and I getting so tired? We've taken long naps and drank plenty of water, yet we're both exhausted. It's not even that hot out, and we've been sweating buckets out there."

The man nodded and closed his eyes. "The walk itself is not what is tiring you. It is the desert itself that is sapping your energy. The longer you remain in this world, the harder it will be for you to keep moving forward."

Star's expression changed from pouty high school girl to that of a confused student. "What do you mean?" she asked tentatively.

The man looked back up at her with his piercing eyes. "The desert itself is a living creature, Star. It feeds off the energy of the beings that live on its surface. If you stay here long enough, you will die and become part of the desert."

Star shuddered at that idea. "Is that why Marco is getting more fatigued than I am, but I'm falling to boredom faster?"

The doctor's eyes lit up with joy. "Yes, my dear. Your mind is less fortified to deal with hours of nothingness than his is. And while Marco isn't the weakest being alive when it comes to physical strength, it is his weakest area. After his emotional threshold, that is."

Star thought about that for a second. Then she remembered their fight from earlier, and how upset Marco had gotten. "Is that why our argument about our old crushes got so heated? Because the desert was influencing us?"

The doctor's face beamed with pride. "Yes, child. That's exactly why. You have been influenced by the desert ever since you arrived here. It doesn't affect me because this is my home, but everyone else is at the mercy of the deserts will."

Star's face started to grow pale. "So how do we get out? Do we need to just keep walking forward?"

"Well," he mumbled to himself, looking down at his guitar. "It's not that simple."

"How so?"

Dr. Gunsery took a breath before saying, "Marco is currently carrying both himself and you. He's going to eventually pass out, and won't be able to get back up again. At all."

Star's face grew pale. "What?!" she exclaimed. "When?"

"Around the time when he sees the exit. Which," he said, looking at Star's eyes with his powerful gaze. "Should be about now."

The man disappeared. Star was left alone in the white void, as her best buddy was about to collapse. There was no way out, and she needed to go help him. She yelled in frustration. "MAAARRCOOOOO!"

And she awoke in a panicked, cold sweat. Marco had just stopped, and was staring ahead with a blank expression. Star panted as she looked up at his face. He had stopped sweating, and a vampire would have more color in their face then Marco did at the moment. She gasped out his name, "Marco…" but he didn't respond. She looked to where Marco's eyes were fixed upon. A bright blue light, stronger than anything she had ever seen, glowed for miles. The exit. They had found it. Marco looked down at her and smiled.

"We did it," he choked out. And then he fainted.


	5. Chapter 5

The Infinite Desert Finale

'Well, crap,' Stars Mind said to itself as Marco fell to the ground. 'Being in his arms right now seems like a bad idea. Perhaps I should get out of his arms.' It was a solid plan. But by the time her mind had thought that idea through, it was too late.

They hit the ground with a hard 'bump'. Marco had fallen forward, which left Star in the awkward position of being between the Marco and the ground. So, while the fall itself had only been a minor pain for her, having Marco's limp form fall on top of her was a different story altogether. His head fell against her stomach, forcing her to lose her breath. It took a few moments for her to regain her breathing, and another few to get Marco off of her. She got to her knees, and then looked at her best friend. Part of her wished she hadn't.

His face was pale. And not pale like realizing that you forgot your homework at home pale. Marco's face was luminescent white pale. If he was breathing, she couldn't tell. But worst of all, he had gone from flowing rivers of sweat to no sweat at all. Star had been taught about first aid once from her tutors, and vaguely remembered a lesson on heat exhaustion. If a person went from sweating a lot to none at all, she recalled, it was because the person didn't have any water in their body to make the sweat. As far as Star knew, her best friend was on the verge of death, if not already gone.

"Marco?" she gasped out. Nothing happened. She shook his chest and spoke louder, "Marco!" He didn't stir. The young teenager looked down at the ground and started to hyperventilate. "It wasn't fair," she spat. "It wasn't right. They had gotten so close to the end, and now Marco was going to…" She couldn't bring herself to say the words out loud. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she began to cry. She cried at how cruel their fate was. She cried for her family that she would never see again. She cried for her fallen friend. And she cried in guilt and regret. 'If I hadn't fallen earlier,' she thought with contempt for herself. 'If I hadn't given up so soon, he wouldn't have had to carry me. He would be in better shape right now. He'd-"

A tear fell from her face and landed on Marco as she continued on her self-deprecation. It splashed on his face, and for an instant, he twitched his cheek a quarter on an inch. Star looked up from the ground to his face and went statue still for half a second. Then she rattled his body again and yelled in an inhuman screech, "Marco!" He budged another inch in reply. Star put her hands to her mouth and sobbed with joy. She attempted to say another phrase, but it was a futile effort. She sat there, letting all of the horrible feelings and emotions she had been building up since they had gotten to the desert out. It was a full minute before she had calmed down again.

When she had gotten her breathing under control again, she glared at the blue portal home. They were not going to give up now, she decided. Not ever. She looked back down at Marco. He was still just as bad as ever, and if they didn't start going now, it was going to get much worse. Star set her face in determination, and then picked Marco up into her arms. She held him the same way he had held her: gently, with tenderness and caution. She faced towards the exit, took in a deep breath, and sprinted for their lives.

She ran. It hurt. It didn't matter. Every bone in her body was screaming at her to give in, but she wasn't listening. A small part of her was curious as to why everything was hurting so much, but she wasn't focusing on that either. All that mattered was getting to the portal. Adrenaline started to pump through her entire body. She put all of her energy, all of her willpower, all of her strength, into getting out of that hellhole. Each dune she nearly leaped up and over got her closer to the exit, closer to home, closer to saving Marco. In the end, that was the only thing that mattered to her anymore. Saving Marco. And if getting to the portal would save him, then by the power invested in her, she would get him there. She kept getting closer to the end, closer to the portal, closer-.

And then she was falling. She had placed her right foot on an oddly placed lump of sand, spraining her ankle. She fell forward, face planting into the sand. It was painful. She grunted in pain, and tried to get up. She couldn't. The pain and fatigue in her arms was too much for her to handle. She lay on the ground, her chest against Marco's in a cross shape, panting and gasping heavily. She looked up slowly, working through the pain in her neck. The portal was only ten yards away.

Ten yards. She had failed by ten yards. She let her head fall down to the ground and cried. No tears struck her face; she had run out of those a few yards back. The hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end, and she looked up. The Doctor from the Oasis and her last dream crouched over her, staring hard at her with a blank expression. He looked her dead in the eyes, stunning her into silence. He glanced down at Marco, and scowled.

"So close," he muttered to himself with the voice of a disappointed teacher of whom had just had to fail a struggling student. "So very close." He sighed and then looked back to Star. She was still staring at him, trying to understand what the heck was going on.

"What," she mumbled with a small lisp. "What are you talking about?"

He gave her an 'are you serious' look and softly spoke, "The exit, of course. You're only a few meters away from the exit. And yet here you lay, not moving more than your head."

Star tried to get angry at that last remark, but she didn't have it in her. She barely was able to come up with a coherent response. "I…" Her lips felt chapped and her throat dry. "I can't." The pain she had been feeling before continued to rise, and she couldn't keep her head up any longer. The sand felt so nice on her face, like a pillow. A nice, soft, warm pillow. Sleep, she thought. Sleep was good. Sleep was what you did when you were tired and hurt, right? Her eyelids grew heavy, and she saw no reason to let them fall. There had been something she had wanted to do, but she couldn't remember it for some reason. Oh well, it couldn't have been important if she forgot about it. Time for sleep…

But right before she fell into out of consciousness, she heard a few last words of the doctor: "So close…"

Marco awoke pain decimating his body, especially his chest area. He tried looking up, but it just made the pain so much worse. He attempted the humble task of opening his eyes, but even that was too much for him. So he simply lay on the ground, overwhelmed with pain, trying to examine the extent of his wounds without accidentally killing himself. He soon found that his throat and lips were dry as the sand below, his legs were cramped and seemed almost bruised, and his chest felt like a lead weight was keeping him down. His overall summary was that his body was totally destroyed. Great. He contemplated going back to sleep and trying again another day, or perhaps week, when a voice from above him said, "Open your eyes."

And he did. He didn't even think about the action, he simply did. It wasn't until he was staring up at the mysterious doctor above him that he realized that he had done the action at all. That was weird, he thought. Creepy weird.

"Marco," the doctor pressed, looking much more serious than when Marco had first seen him. "This is your last chance. You either get up and get to the portal now or you die."

Marco gazed up at the person above him curiously. Despite knowing that his life was on the line, we couldn't help himself from questioning the scenario. He tried to speak, and his voice came out cracked. "How did you get here so fast?"

The man's expression grew increasingly frustrated. "Look, do you want to hear a long explanation of who I am, and why I'm here, and the true purpose of The Infinite Desert," he took a long breath before opening his eyes and hands wide in a slightly insane gesture and continued. "Or do you want to get out of here with both you and your best friend alive?"

Marco winced a little at the obvious sarcasm. He thought about his options for a second, and then asked, "Can I at least ask you how you got here?"

The doctor narrowed his eyes at the boy below him, and then closed them with a sigh of defeat. "I am part of the desert," he explained in a dull monotone. "I can appear anywhere within the desert when a crucial moment is being undertaken. I cannot appear whenever I want to, however, and cannot help you get out. I can only inform you of your options." He sighed again and stared down at Marco in frustration. "Now, are you going to get up and escape with your lives, or are you going to give up?"

Marco stared up at the Doctors eyes for a long moment. He hadn't realized until then that the doctors hadn't been wearing his sunglasses like before. His eyes were bright blue, very similar to Star's eyes. Star. Marco turned his head to face her, ignoring all of the pain that fought to keep him in place. She was bad, nearly as bad as he had been when he had fallen. She was deathly pale, her breathing was too hard for someone who was supposed to be sleeping peacefully, and she was shivering every now and again. For Marco, there was no choice. He had to go on. For Star.

He turned back to the doctor with his jaw set in determination. "I'm not giving up," he said confidently. The doctor's features relaxed and he looked down at him. He nodded his head and started to walk away. Marco tried to sit up, but the pain stopped him in his tracks. "Wait! Where are you going?"

The man kept walking without turning back. "I cannot help directly, only guide," he said, fading into the desert. A few seconds later, and he was gone.

Marco looked up towards the sky in frustration. What a load of crap that guy was, Marco thought to himself. All he did was wake me up and tell me that I had to make a decision. He paused those thoughts for a second as another came to him: perhaps that was what he needed. If he hadn't woken up, they would have been doomed to the will of the desert. Marco had to give him credit for doing that much. Now it was up to him to finish the job. He got up into a seating position, despite the intense pain. Pain didn't matter anymore. Its purpose was to tell him that his body was in disarray, and he already knew that. He eventually got up onto his feet and picked up Star. It felt like she had added two hundred pounds since he had last carried her. Finally he turned in the direction of the portal, and let out a heavy sigh.

Ten yards. It was ten yards away. It might as well have been ten miles away. But he had to get Star out of there and to safety. That was the only important thing left for him to do. He suddenly chuckled to himself. Star had always said that he had a bit of a hero complex. Maybe she was right. But on the other hand, she wasn't going to be much of a help in the process anymore, so he might as well take up the role of hero. He took a moment to refocus on the matter at hand, and then he took the first step.

Agony erupted in his leg, and he nearly fell to the floor. He caught himself in the nick of time and steadied himself. This wasn't going to be easy, he thought. But then again, most things worth fighting for weren't. He took the next step forward, and pain exploded in his other leg. He had to walk slowly, putting all of his mind and body into putting one foot in front of the other. One step, then another, and then another. The process seemed to take forever. Finally, after what had seemed like days, he had reached the portal. Only one foot away, the power of the portal thrummed audibly. Marco took one last deep breath, and then he walked into the portal. Everything went black, and he passed out.

Ludo was stunned after the event with the sand portal. Then a moment later, he started to look around trying to find the wand.

"Uh, Toffee?" Ludo asked nervously. "Where's the wand?"

Toffee looked down at Ludo with smug satisfaction. "Give it a few seconds."

Ludo looked back over to where the teenagers had been. There was still no wand there. Nothing happened for a few seconds. But before he could ask Toffee what he had meant by a few seconds when a portal of sand appeared out of thin air above where the last portal had been. As it opened, two bodies fell from it: a young teenage boy and girl. Marco landed down on the sidewalk first, soon followed by Star on top of him. He let out a grunt of pain at each blow, but then went still. Star, on the other hand, simply fell without any noise.

Ludo's face went pale at the sight of the two. He had deeply despised the two of them for keeping him from the wand, but he had never wanted them to get seriously hurt. Ludo looked up at Toffee, whose grin was as wide as a river, and asked, "Wh-, where did you send them, Toffee? They look like they're on the verge of death."

Toffee controlled his expression and looked down at Ludo with a professional look. "Why, Ludo," he said as if explaining to a child. "It was the only way to get the wand. Why look, its right over there for the taking."

Ludo looked back to the broken friends and saw the wand sticking out of Star's pocket. "Uhh," Ludo stammered, suddenly uncertain about his own moral standards. "Oh yes, of course." He walked over to where Star lay and reached out for the wand. His breath started to intensify as he got closer to grabbing it. So intense, in fact, that it woke up Star. She opened her eyes right as he was about to take the wand. She fell away from Ludo and on to the naked sidewalk behind Marco. Ludo froze where he had been, giving Star enough time to get up onto her feet and survey the situation.

The world was as it had been before they had been swept away in the sand portal. But then how had she gotten back? The last thing she remembered was falling down and giving in to her need for sleep. Who could have-.

She looked down at Marco to see him not moving an inch. It must have been Marco. She started to panic. If Marco had gotten up again and carried her out of the portal, then he'd be in even worse shape than before. Her heart began to pound. Why couldn't she have gone that last ten yards? She had been in much better shape than Marco had been, and it was only ten more yards. She started to berate herself more, but was brought back into reality by Toffee's irritated voice.

"How are you still standing?" He said with shock and anger mixed together. "That dimension should have drained away nearly all of your life force."

Star looked up at him, and then started to get mad. All of the grief she had gone through for the past 4 or 5 days was Toffees fault. She had nearly died because of Toffee. Marco was… he was… he had been hurt badly by Toffee. Her hand grew into a fist around her wand, and it started to glow. Ludo looked up at her with wide eyes and tried to give orders to his troops. He failed miserably.

Star looked straight at Toffees eyes with murder in her eyes. She leveled her wand at him, and spoke with such a cold, hatred induced tone that she had never before used in her life: "Savage Flying Piranha Storm."

Hundreds of piranhas flew out of her wand with tremendous force. They went for Ludo and his men, and they had just enough time to open a portal and escape before the attack killed them. Star looked at where they had been a few seconds before, seething with rage. And then she remembered her dying friend, and dropped to his side. She didn't waste any time trying to get him to talk; she knew that it was futile. Instead, she reached for his mobile phone and called 911.

Marco was sleeping cozily on his bed when he awoke. The covers were warm and heavy, his pillow as soft as a cloud, and his pajamas felt like they were made of silk. He was still tired, and it was the weekend, so he felt no reason to rush getting up. He was about to let himself drift off back to sleep when he heard a familiar voice calling out to him. He opened his eyes a little to see who it was, and the face of a young girl standing over him encompassed his vision. It was Star, his best friend. She must have wanted to play a game that morning. He was about to tell her no when he noticed that she had her hands over her mouth and was crying. He opened them a little more and asked, "Star?"

She let out an enormous sigh of relief and brought him into a tight hug. "Star!?" he exclaimed in confusion and irritation. "What gives?"

She continued to sob over his shoulder as she held on tight. "You're alive," she choked out. "You're alive."

Marco's confusion increased, "Well, yeah," he said stupidly. "Why wouldn't I be?" And then the memory of the desert and all of the pain associated with it came rushing back. He collapsed back onto his bed in exhaustion, barely able to stay awake. Star backed away from his shoulder and looked him in the eye.

"Are you alright?" she asked, panic starting to creep into her voice. Marco took a second to breathe and relax before responding with a quick nod. Star smiled at him and soon relaxed as well. Then her eyebrows furrowed down and she frowned at him. "How did you get us out of the desert? You were practically dead."

He looked up at her and gave her a wolfish grin. "I found the strength to get up from within."

She frowned harder. "And carry me out as well."

He gave her a warm smile before saying, "Well, I couldn't just leave you behind, now could I? We're best buddies, till the end."

Star's eyes started to tear up again, and she brought him into a tight hug. It was tighter than any hug she had ever given anyone before or after. "Best buddies," she repeated in a hushed voice. "Till the end."

 **Author's notes: First and foremost, I'd like to thank each and every one of you that followed and favorited this story, or just read it from beginning to end. I'm glad that you enjoyed the story and that you thought it was worth your time to read it.**

 **Secondly, this is, as a matter of fact, my first fanfic. I left that out of the summary because I didn't want anyone to give the story any undeserved credit. I believe that a writer needs the most criticism when they are starting out, so as to avoid falling into their own short comings. I ask of you, therefore, that you give constructive criticism in any review you give. Thank you all again for reading, and I hope that you enjoy my next work, whenever that may come.**


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